China Glaze Up & Away Collection Review Round-up

The twelve shades from Up & Away are all creme finish, which means that they’re creamy and have absolutely no shimmer whatsoever. I didn’t find these the easiest to apply from the beginning, but I did find that after I initially applied three or four of them, I started to figure out what worked and what didn’t for these. I did, however, really love the range of shades included in this launch and really felt like they covered the entire rainbow.

Temptalia Recommendations

I don’t think any of these merit a skip, because none of them performed horribly — it’s really a matter of what kind of shades you gravitate towards and which ones you just know aren’t your thing. (Like bright yellows? Not really my thing.) I found the darker/deeper colors to be the easiest to apply, with the lighter ones more prone to streaking, but as you can see, I was able to get creamy, smooth results with all the shades.

Here are some tips I learned about application for these spring shades…

Experiment with thickness of coats and number of coats. I found one thin coat (which might even be streaky) followed by a slightly thicker second coat gave me the results I wanted.

Make sure to use a base coat and top coat. The base coat will give the polish a smoother surface and something better to anchor to, which will help the polish look and feel more even and smooth. (It also helps it last longer!)

Patience is a virtue. You don’t need to wait ten minutes in-between coats, but I would advise waiting anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. Since I went for a fairly thin first coat, I didn’t have to wait long before it was dry enough to layer on a second coat.

Shade by Shade Reviews

China Glaze’s spring collection certainly caught your eye, and I was really pleasantly surprised by just how many nail polish fans we have on this blog! I will definitely try to be more consistent and include more coverage on nail polish in the future (though let’s take a break for a few days!).

China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Heli-Yum

China Glaze Heli-Yum Nail Lacquer is a vibrant, deeply pigmented pinky-red.; It’s not the scarlet red we’ve seen over and over again for the holiday season — it’s marked by a lot of raspberry pink. It’s one of the deeper shades of the collection as well, but it is a beautiful shade of not-quite-red but more-than-pink.

Intensely pigmented, smooth to the touch, and pretty easy to apply all describe this formula and shade. I needed just one medium-thick coat to get a smooth, non-streaky application with an opaque finish. I still went for two, but that’s a personal preference; you could easily get away with just a single coat with this particular shade and formula.

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Product: 28/30

Value: 9/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: Though a little summery, this is one beautiful pink-coral shade for nails!

Availability: January 2010

See more photos and swatches…

China Glaze Heli-Yum Nail Lacquer

China Glaze Heli-Yum Nail Lacquer

]]>http://www.temptalia.com/china-glaze-up-away-collection-heli-yum-nail-lacquer-review-photos-swatches/feed13China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Sugar High Nail Lacquer Review, Photos, Swatcheshttp://www.temptalia.com/china-glaze-up-away-collection-sugar-high-nail-lacquer-review-photos-swatches
http://www.temptalia.com/china-glaze-up-away-collection-sugar-high-nail-lacquer-review-photos-swatches#commentsSun, 06 Dec 2009 16:45:37 +0000Christinehttp://www.temptalia.com/?p=17355China Glaze Sugar High Nail Lacquer China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Sugar High China Glaze Sugar High Nail Lacquer is a vibrant medium pink with a coral kick creme. When I swatched it, I saw a fair amount of coral in it, so I wouldn’t classify it as a hot pink at all. It […]]]>China Glaze Sugar High Nail Lacquer

China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Sugar High

China Glaze Sugar High Nail Lacquer is a vibrant medium pink with a coral kick creme. When I swatched it, I saw a fair amount of coral in it, so I wouldn’t classify it as a hot pink at all. It does have the brightness one would expect in a hot pink, though, but there is definitely some coral in it. I actually think the smidgen of coral makes it a more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

Like other deeper shades in the collection, Sugar High applied like a dream–even, smooth, and opaque–in just one or two coats. I didn’t find myself worrying much over streakiness with this, like I did with some of the lighter shades, which was nice. The formula is similar to the other shades; thick, richly pigmented, and has a beautiful slightly glossy creme finish.

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Product: 28/30

Value: 9/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: Though a little summery, this is one beautiful pink-coral shade for nails!

China Glaze Up & Away Collection: High Hopes

China Glaze High Hopes Nail Lacquer is a bright orange-red creme. It’s almost like a really, really intense orange-coral with kind of a red flare to it. It’s definitely not “construction orange” nor is it a summery coral! It’s somewhere in the middle, and I’d say it is considerably bright for the spring season. I could just as easily see this shade being part of a summer launch as I do for a spring launch (I’d probably lean towards the summer side, though).

This was a very intensely pigmented creme formula — it went on evenly, smoothly, and opaque in one medium-thick coat. I still ended up opting for a thinner first coat followed by a thicker second coat for the swatches; I just felt like it gave it a more finished look and feel overall. The formula itself wasn’t too thick or gooey, and this one applied particularly well out of the bunch, so I was quite pleased!

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 28/30

Value: 9/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: For a brighter color on your nails this spring, High Hopes might make you hopeful (harhar!)!

China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Peachykeen

China Glaze Peachykeen Nail Lacquer is a brightened up peachy-orange creme. It’s distinctly orange, but it has enough lightness to give it a peachier feel. It’s really like an apricot to me, actually. You could call it Apri-peach, and I’d dig it. It’s completely and utterly unlike MAC’s Seasonal Peach Nail Lacquer, which is more of a pinky-peach and far lighter. (The good news is China Glaze’s creme formula applies more evenly and less streakingly–at least the final results–than MAC’s Seasonal Peach did.) It’s not a neon orange either, in case anyone was worried (or wanting!) about that.

This is sort of a middle-of-the-road shade; Peachykeen didn’t give me much trouble in application, but it wasn’t as smooth or even from the get-go as the deeper shades like Four Leaf Clover. It’s a thick, richly pigmented creme formula that doesn’t apply like goo or run all over the place, so it’s a pretty good formula. It just may take you one or two attempts to get the application down for this formula.

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China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Lemon Fizz

China Glaze Lemon Fizz Nail Lacquer is a spring-y daffodil yellow. It’s pale and pastel, but there’s a little warmth there to keep it from being too cool or dull. There’s even a brightness–maybe the optimism of spring captured in color–to the yellow without making it a traffic-stopping yellow (which is more Happy Go Lucky’s style). I’m not a fan of yellow on my nails, but this is a yellow I could feel comfortable wearing.

Like some of the paler shades from this launch, application proved trickier than usual, but I found one thin coat (which may or may not have been streaky) followed by a thicker second coat worked well to given an even, creamy finish. I had the mentality of, “Fine, be streaky on the first coat… but I’m covering all that up later.” I would really suggest just playing around with different applications, coat amounts, thickness, etc. (you may even have to test out different base/top coat combinations), but the results are certainly worth a few botched attempts!

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!